Manchester City silenced a hostile Anfield crowd as second-half goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki secured a 3-0 victory over 10-man Liverpool on Sunday and maintained the Premier League leaders’ perfect start to the season.
City were playing for the first time since an independent commission found them guilty of 114 breaches of the league’s financial rules, and were greeted by deafening boos and angry chants.
But Enzo Maresca’s side stood firm against Liverpool’s early pressure and a fevered atmosphere before taking control after Ryan Gravenberch was sent off in the 62nd minute for a second booking following a foul on Doku.
Haaland then struck three minutes later, smashing a left-footed shot past Alisson after Doku worked the ball into the box and his attempted shot was deflected into the path of the big Norwegian.
Haaland made a beeline to celebrate with the traveling ?City fans including Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher.
Doku doubled the lead in the 68th minute with a gorgeous long-range shot that curled into the far top corner.
Cherki completed the rout — and sent scores of Liverpool fans heading to the exits — in the 78th minute when he let the ball roll through to Josko Gvardiol before turning into the box to meet his teammate’s pass and slot the ball home.
“It was a lovely moment that will stay with us a long time,” Man City striker Haaland told Sky Sports.
“It’s time to stay strong and stick together and do what you can do something about, stick together.”
Man City midfielder Elliot Anderson said City’s unity had stood out.
“We’ve shown real togetherness and fight. It’s a tough place to come and it’s challenging,” he said.
“We really stuck together out there, fought for each other and played well.”
The Liverpool fans left at the final whistle chanted “Going down! Going Down! Going Down!” in reference to City’s potential relegation. The club have denied all wrongdoing, and have ?appealed the independent commission’s verdict.
A defiant Haaland and Maresca grinned and pumped their fists at the City fans, who delightedly waved inflatable bananas, a tradition dating from their time out of the top flight in the 1980s.
“Very difficult circumstances and environment,” Maresca said. “We need to learn how to deal with the noise because the noise will be with us for all the away games.
“And (we need to) make our noise, and our noise is to win games. Like today, the good feeling at the end of the game was just ?our fans and our noise.”
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola lamented the red card decision.
“Sixty minutes before the red card, players were very good. From then, City was obviously better than us,” he said. “I didn’t like the refereeing today.
The first yellow card was nothing. It’s a normal foul with 20 players behind the ball. As a referee you put yourself in trouble and us in trouble.”
The victory gave City six wins from six and moved them three points clear of Arsenal on 18 points, providing a forceful response on the pitch after a turbulent week away from it. Liverpool are ninth after their first league loss of the season.
Maresca is only the fourth manager to win each of ?his first six Premier League matches with a club, after Pep Guardiola (City in 2016), Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 2009) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United, 2018-19).
City’s resounding victory comes with caveats. While they remain firmly in control at the top of the league, their perfect start increasingly stands in contrast to the uncertainty surrounding the club, with the fallout from the financial rules verdict leaving far more questions than answers about what comes next.